Minor can’t be kept in protection home without consent: HC

Even a minor cannot be forced to live in a protection home without her consent, the Allahabad High Court has observed, while directing that a girl be released from a state-run facility here.

The Lucknow bench of Justices Shabihul Hasnain and Shashi Kant gave the order on a Habeas Corpus petition filed by the girl’s “husband”.

The court while allowing the petition said that “even a minor cannot be forced to live in protection home without her consent” and directed that “the detenue is set at liberty”.

The matter pertains to a girl who was sent to Nari Niketan here following an order by Additional Sessions judge, Unnao, on April 22. The girl was detained after her father claimed that she was a minor and had been lured away by a man.

The girl, however, told the court that she was 20 years old and had married the man of her own will.

To a query by the court, she replied that she does not want to live with her parents or in the protection home.

The girl also submitted that she wanted to live with her “husband”, who had filed the petition on her behalf seeking direction for her release contending that she was in detention through an “illegal order”.